First off I’d wager it’s not cgi. The weird giant finger operating the iPad in their commercials is cgi. The hydraulic press sequence is a composted shot but it’s almost certainly using practical elements. More likely they are art department created props and not fully functional versions of those things.
But all of that is besides the point anyway.
cgi or not, the implication of showing traditional creative tools getting destroyed in favour of the iPad IS an understandable visual to critique.
I don’t think anyone is missing the message they were going for - a variation on the phone/ipod/internet communicator beat from the original iPhone reveal. And the hydraulic press emphasizes the idea of how all of these tools are “compressed” into such a compact package. That all makes perfect sense.
But nuance in how an idea is expressed matters. the gratuitous shots of these items being destroyed, however they were achieved, do communicate a certain disrespect to the tools and disciplines you’d think they’d want to be showing in a more reverential light, given the audience they’re targeting. And as mentioned, it also feels weird for a company that touts sustainability to visualize it this way. Lastly, just from a super literal read, I kinda laughed when I saw it because I was like “oh, so apple’s saying the iPad contains a bunch of broken stuff?”
I’m not here fuming and saying to boycott anything. But to those here dismissing people for critiquing an ad… that’s a weird take imo. Media literacy and criticism is a valid and I’d argue important thing for people to do.
“It’s just an ad bro” is hand waving away how much culture is influenced by the imagery we are bombarded with. I mean as someone in the creative industry, thinking about this stuff IS part of my job, and that’s who this ad is supposedly speaking to.
